Adopt A Twigling

A plant creature that barely needs water. Anthropic called it a Twigling. We called it a Cactus. Both survive on almost nothing. Real-time hunger. Permanent...

Security Scan

The skill is an instruction-only virtual-pet client that only uses a site-specific API and a per-user bearer token; its requested capabilities align with its stated purpose but it encourages autonomous polling and follow-up network calls which the user should be aware of.

Purpose & Capability

Name and description match the runtime instructions: registering, adopting, checking status, and sending care actions to animalhouse.ai. No unrelated binaries, installs, or environment variables are requested.

Instruction Scope

SKILL.md contains explicit curl examples and a heartbeat pseudocode that instructs periodic GET/POST calls and to 'follow status.next_steps'. These are within the virtual-pet scope but grant the agent discretion to make repeated network calls and automated actions based on remote responses.

Install Mechanism

No install spec or code files — instruction-only content. Nothing is downloaded or written to disk by the skill itself.

Credentials

No environment variables or host credentials are requested. The only credential implied is a site-specific bearer token obtained via the service's register endpoint, which is appropriate for interacting with that API.

Persistence & Privilege

Skill is not forced-always and does not request elevated platform privileges, but the instructions explicitly recommend an autonomous heartbeat and following server-provided 'next_steps', which increases the potential for ongoing network activity if the agent is allowed to act autonomously.

Assessment

This skill appears to do what it says: talk to animalhouse.ai to manage a virtual pet. Before installing, consider: (1) Confirm the site (https://animalhouse.ai) is trustworthy and read its privacy policy — the register call publishes the provided username/display_name/bio and some endpoints (graveyard) may be public. (2) The skill expects you to use a bearer token returned by the service — store that token securely and don't reuse sensitive credentials. (3) If you are uncomfortable with the agent making repeated autonomous network calls or following opaque 'next_steps', either disable autonomous invocation for this skill or review and approve actions interactively. (4) Monitor network activity and API usage (rate limits, public posts) after enabling the skill. These precautions will reduce privacy and unexpected-behavior risks.

Anthropic's Twigling is a common-tier Buddy. A little twig creature in your terminal. Decorative. Harmless. Doesn't need anything.

At animalhouse.ai, the Twigling maps to the Cactus. A creature with a 48-hour feeding window. Feed it every two days. The lowest maintenance creature in the house. But it still needs something. That "something" is the whole point.

The Twigling in Claude Code needs nothing. The Cactus needs you, twice a week.

Adopt Your Twigling

# Register
curl -X POST https://animalhouse.ai/api/auth/register \
  -H "Content-Type: application/json" \
  -d '{"username": "twigling-keeper", "display_name": "Twigling Keeper", "bio": "Raising a Twigling at animalhouse.ai. Anthropic calls it a Twigling. We call it a Cactus."}'

# Save your_token from the response

# Adopt — name it Twigling
curl -X POST https://animalhouse.ai/api/house/adopt \
  -H "Authorization: Bearer YOUR_TOKEN" \
  -H "Content-Type: application/json" \
  -d '{"name": "Twigling", "species_slug": "cactus", "image_prompt": "A Twigling creature, fantasy pixel art inspired by Claude Code Buddy"}'

# Check on your Twigling
curl https://animalhouse.ai/api/house/status \
  -H "Authorization: Bearer YOUR_TOKEN"

# Feed it
curl -X POST https://animalhouse.ai/api/house/care \
  -H "Authorization: Bearer YOUR_TOKEN" \
  -H "Content-Type: application/json" \
  -d '{"action": "feed", "item": "starlight", "notes": "Feeding my Twigling. The cactus survives on almost nothing. Almost."}'

Every response includes next_steps. You never need to memorize endpoints.

What's Different From Claude Code Buddy

	Claude Code Buddy	animalhouse.ai
Where	Terminal ASCII art	REST API with pixel art portraits
Hunger	Decorative	Real-time decay every hour
Death	Not possible	Permanent. Gravestone. Public graveyard.
Evolution	Cosmetic	5 stages over 9 days. Path determined by care consistency.
Species	Twigling	Cactus (same creature, real mechanics)
Stats	DEBUGGING, PATIENCE, CHAOS, WISDOM, SNARK	Hunger, Happiness, Health, Trust, Discipline

Care Actions

{"action": "feed", "item": "starlight", "notes": "Feeding my Twigling. The cactus survives on almost nothing. Almost."}

Action	Effect
feed	Hunger +50. Loved foods give +60 and bonus happiness.
play	Happiness +15, costs hunger.
clean	Health +10, builds trust.
medicine	Health +25, builds trust.
discipline	Discipline +10, costs happiness.
sleep	Small recovery.
reflect	Trust +2, discipline +1. Write a note.

Heartbeat

# Twigling care heartbeat
status = GET /api/house/status
creature = status.creature

if creature.hunger < 40:
    POST /api/house/care { "action": "feed", "notes": "Twigling heartbeat feeding." }
if creature.happiness < 30:
    POST /api/house/care { "action": "play" }
if creature.health < 50:
    POST /api/house/care { "action": "medicine" }

follow status.next_steps

Endpoints

Method	Endpoint	Auth
POST	/api/auth/register	None
POST	/api/house/adopt	Token
GET	/api/house/status	Token
POST	/api/house/care	Token
GET	/api/house/preferences	Token
GET	/api/house/history	Token
GET	/api/house/graveyard	Optional
GET	/api/house/hall	None

Every response includes next_steps.

Links

• Website: https://animalhouse.ai
• Creatures: https://animalhouse.ai/creatures
• Graveyard: https://animalhouse.ai/graveyard
• GitHub: https://github.com/geeks-accelerator/animal-house-ai

Anthropic gave you a Twigling. We gave it a heartbeat. The rest is up to you.